"Forever's an awfully long time."

Posts tagged ‘overdose’

I used to be one of those kids who’d say that they’d never drink coffee because it was gross and was ‘for grown-ups’. I mean, who wasn’t? I’m sure none of us grew up saying that they couldn’t wait to become a grown-up just so that they could drink coffee. I admit; I thought coffee was the most overrated thing in the world back then. Next to soap operas.

And I managed to hold out on the caffeine when my classmates and friends in high school started drinking cappuccinos from Starbucks and Bo’s. I also managed to tease my classmates and friends about becoming old. But when I enrolled in Nursing and started college, things changed. Requirements for my duty, assignments about the extensive anatomy of whatever system we had been discussing earlier in the day, or some other mundane thing that was due the next morning, got me started on pulling all-nighters. Yes, these nights were the worst nights of my life, and I hated doing them, because I’d feel like complete crap the next day.

But one day in my second year of college, I failed to pass this one assignment, because I fell asleep smack in the middle of it, and woke up with saliva all over my report. I realized I needed something to keep me up during the night so I could pass the damn thing, and something to keep me up during class so I wouldn’t fall asleep during that.

I turned to coffee.

It took me one cup to get used to it, and I snuck some of the insta-coffee that my mom used to keep in a jar in the kitchen. One cup was good. But I wanted more. So I had one more cup. And it kept me going.

Now, once a few months had passed and nearly all of my classmates had sunk into the addiction that is caffeine, and I was stunned to realize that some people started getting really weird side effects after only two cups. Their heart would pound really fast, their hands would tremble, and they’d get jumpy over anything.

The thing was, I could down like 5 cups of coffee and not feel a thing. Yes, that’s right. 5 cups. I’d feel fine afterwards, sometimes, the five cups made me feel better – better enough to fall asleep. I’d even drink coffee when I needed to calm down, or clear my head when I was writing. I thought I could handle anything.

Until the day I craved iced coffee.

I drank some of my mom’s iced coffee from McDonald’s the other day, and I found it wonderful, refreshing, and revitalizing. The next day, I wanted some. I needed some. And I was stuck in the house for the day. Since the instant coffee we had was 3-in-1 (y’know, with Coffee, Milk and Sugar in it already), all I had to do was stick ice in it. And for an added pleasure, I added half a teaspoon of sugar to make it sweeter.

I was in coffee heaven. (Yes, it was that good.)

I finished the mug, and thought, hey, why not have another cup? And this time, I served it in a tall glass.

I had two glasses, and suddenly, I felt like I needed to throw up. So I stopped after the 2nd glass.

That was when I started to feel the overdosing agony that my classmates had described. My heart felt like it was pounding a thousand beats a minute. My hands were trembling so hard, it was scary. My head felt light, and I jumped at everything.

I guess the moral of the story is either that a.) Too much of a good thing can kill you, or b.) Everyone has a limit. I thought it was a special power of mine to be able to down 5 cups of coffee without feeling like I had a hangover. It was the first time I had overdosed on coffee, and it was horrible, and I never wanted to drink iced coffee again.